THE CAUCASUS EXPEDITION

26. 12. 2018

The journey of our climbing school from sandstone rocks in Adršpach in the Czech Republic to the Caucasian mountains went smooth and the Caucasus welcomed us with the weather conditions of the indian summer and therefore with ideal climbing conditions. Our first mountain to climb was Kazbek (5 033 m). We chose direct ascent on the southeastern side of the mountain. But right under the main couloir, 200 vertical metres below the summit, my Achilles tendon started to hurt. This was the last spot of this route before the final summit ascent from which we could descend safely and easily back. So we decided not to risk anything, climb down and come back next year.

The second mountain we had on our Caucasian check-list was Asatiani (3 842 m) in the Juta region. The weather was perfect. We set off from the bivouac at 4 a.m. and reached the summit about ten hours later, at 2 p.m. We got back to the bivouac at about half-past six, packed quickly all our things and equipment and hit the road to Juta, which meant a 20km trek, and an hour drive to the base in Kazbek.